On September 29, it was revealed that CD Projekt Red was starting a mandatory 6-day work week ahead of the launch of Cyberpunk 2077. In simple terms: This is the start of the oft-controversial "crunch" that is prevalent throughout the gaming industry. An email was sent to employees this week from studio head Adam Badowski saying that "the entire (development) studio is in overdrive."
This comes roughly one year after the heads of CED Projekt Red said that they were going to avoid mandatory crunch for the game. Ha, whoopsie daisy!
Today, Badowski responds to the accusations of "crunch" happening at the studio.
These last 6 weeks are our final spring on a project we've all spent much of our live son. Something we care for deeply. The majority of the team understands that push, especially in light of the fact that we'vve just sent the game to cert and every day brings us visibly closer to shipping a game we want to be proud of. This is one of the hardest decisions I've had to make, but everyone is well compensated for every extra hour they put in. And, like in recent years, 10% of the annual profit our company generates in 2020 will be split directly among the team.
As of right now, Cyberpunk 2077 is still set to be released on November 19 for PlayStation, Xbox, and PC.
